Friday, June 27, 2008

I love Jane Austen books. I'm probably the worst anglophile you've ever met, but I love Jane Austen books. And I've just found out that I resemble the closest to Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility.

To quote the site:

"You Are...Elinor Dashwood!

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see."

I knew I liked Emma Thompson!

Many thanks to my Razzzberries friend Laurie for hooking me up with the quiz!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Here's an idea McCain nor Obama will never go for: creation of a law attaching the annual compensation of company/corporate executives to the annual pay of their lowest paid employees.

The executives can get no more than, perhaps, 20 X more than the annual pay (to be taxed at 35%) of their lowest paid employees, anything above that amount in compensation (including stock options, etc.) will be taxed 100%. You do need a little bit of a spread (hence the 20X vs. 5X) because of all of the skilled levels of jobs within a company.

This would also include employees outside of the U.S., as well as employees of companies for whom work has been outsourced to, namely those displacing American employees. Executives cannot receive an increase in their compensation package until their employee's pay has first been increased.

If this were to happen, there would be no need for a minimum wage, being boardroom greed as it is, because you would begin to see all of the company employees getting pay raises really quickly.

In addition, this would assist in improving the standard of living for employees on a world wide basis, as well as level the playing field between applicants for jobs in America vs. applicants in other countries.

This could also provide a real boost for the economy (not the sorry excuse for a rebate we got this year), as these pay increases would be permanent, not a one time shot in the wallet.

For many years I've watched different shows on PBS, but I particularly enjoy Friday evenings on PBS. My Mother is discovering she likes it as well. :o)

I enjoy Horizon, Washington Week and the McLaughlin Group, mostly because it's the news behind the news that you hear, to get an idea of what's really going on beneath the surface.

The other show I really enjoy is called NOW on PBS. The latest show was on India and their new economy with the new jobs being shipped from the U.S., as well as those being created as a result of their economy. Be sure to check out India Rising, as well as a previous show, Taxing The Poor. You will find these to be very enlightening.

There is a new article in Time Magazine called "The Great Wall of America". This is worth reading, as it talks about the wall that has been built on our southern border and how effective it is in keeping people out.

While I agree we need something to protect us from drug smugglers and terrorists, we could make it a lot easier for them to be caught if they were the only people crossing our border illegally.

Helping the people of Mexico fix Mexico is going to be a tall order, because in many ways they are facing the same problems we are facing:

The major difference is cultural in nature which influences their politics. They, along with a number of other Latin American countries have a populist view of politics. The populist view is basically the good of the people over the good of business, finance or government. The problem is, as we see with our Social Security and Medicare "populist" programs, the populist view only works as long as the government can afford it.

This is discussed in Alan Greenspan's book "The Age of Turbulence".

This does not mean that all populist-type programs are bad, however they need to be carefully managed so that the costs do not exceed the benefits.

With a few modifications, however, Mexico could have some of the benefits of populist-type programs, but only if they fix their border problems, labor problems and education problems. They could have them and make them work for the Mexican people, however it may require some changes in the government, dependent upon how much resistance to change the people of Mexico receive from government leaders. If what I have read is correct, there is a lot of corruption in the government of Mexico that will need to be removed before positive change can actually begin.

This does not mean, however, that the Mexican people could not, nor should not, be educated on how to make this type of change to occur. I'm not talking specifically about a college education, but I can tell you that change begins with an educated people.

Consider this: how many of our Founding Fathers of the U.S. had college degrees? Some did, however there were some who did not. Those who were not, educated themselves to improve their employment chances, as well as to improve our nation. James Madison was not an expert on foreign governments and constitutions when he drafted our Constitution, however he did educate himself on how the governments of other nations worldwide worked, and tried to use the best out of many examples to frame how our country should work, and still works - to some degree - today.

This is one that's been out for a few months now, based on a DVD combining Ralph Nader at a rally and the music of Patti Smith. The message is to protest the war in Iraq while honoring the troops serving there.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

In one of my previous posts, I talked about Earmarks and how they affect our National Budget and ultimately our National Debt (or the Deficit). I guess I spoke too soon! My Mother told me today about an article she read in the paper about H. Ross Perot and a web site he has put together with a series of charts that actually give the facts of what I was referring to when I spoke about the debt we have as a nation, and how much of it is being financed by other countries.

Here is the link to the web site H. Ross Perot put together: PerotCharts.com.

If H. Ross Perot sounds familiar to you, he ran for President of the U.S. as an Independent in 1992. Now, he is not seeking any public office, but he has put this out as something for everyone to have access to.

If you look at the presentation at the bottom left of the screen, it takes you to a series of slides to explain some of the graphics you will see. A lot of it contained items I had read about in Alan Greenspan's book "The Age of Turbulence", however the slides starting from #23 and forward should be more alarming to the average household.

The second is somewhat humorous about a student asking him not to run for office.

The third video is actually part 5 of 5 on YouTube, of an extra feature on the DVD of An Unreasonable Man, a documentary about Ralph Nader. This was a documentary I first saw on PBS and purchased the DVD. This segment has a few great points to it, namely of a political consultant who worked for the Democratic Party for years. He points out that to vote for someone you don't believe in makes you a politician, not a voter.

All of these videos and more can be found at the VoteNader08 page on the YouTube web site.

Back on May 9th, I had the opportunity to hear Ralph Nader speak and meet him personally. He is and has been an attorney looking out for the interests of everyone, whether it be seat belts, air bags, clean air, clean water, food safety, even pushing for the Freedom of Information Act. It would be an understatement to call him a legend. If you're really curious, click here to see more about him in a documentary entitled "An Unreasonable Man". There's even a spot you can click on to see how his work (and the results of those who work with him) affect your daily life.

Ralph, himself, is actually a really nice and funny man when you meet him. I was immediately at ease when talking to him, and he found some of what I said to be funny. He's very passionate about what he is doing, but then again he was raised to be passionate about this country. He doesn't want to see it go down the toilet.

To get to know his personal side, he wrote a fantastic book last year (a copy of which he was very nice to autograph for me) called The 17 Traditions. It's a book about the 17 traditions his parents instilled in him and his siblings. Click here to see the web site he created for his book, and you can even post the traditions from your own family on the web site.

You've heard me mention earmarks in a few posts, this is just a brief review in case you do not know what earmarks are. If you are not concerned about them, you should be, because a lot of our federal deficit has risen because of earmarks.

Earmarks are little projects that Representatives and Senators tack onto the end of other bills, usually bills that are completely unrelated to the earmark. These are little projects such as libraries for retiring members of Congress, grants to businesses for a local project and so on.

While these may seem harmless "little" projects (some are multi-million dollar projects so I would hardly call them "little"), the problem is that there is no money for them in the budget, which is why they have been earmarked.

What I'm getting at: do you have a budget in your home? What would be the purpose of having a budget (and how could you keep that budget) if someone were constantly spending money from that budget for items not in the budget. What would happen if someone used your food money to buy a nice, shiny new car for themselves? Do you have a credit card? Does your credit card have a limit? Our Federal Budget has a limit, but unfortunately that limit is not obeyed, and our country is in debt. Don't believe me? Click here for a peek at how much we owe.

How does our government still pay it's bills given the amount of our Federal Deficit? Other governments, who have a surplus (from the exports we buy), are loaning us money for our debt. At some point in time, though, the piggy banks of other countries are going to run dry. Then what will our Congress do? You guessed it, raise our taxes to pay for their projects and pay off our debt.

There are some good guys in our Congress who are trying to stop them. One of them is one of our own Representatives, Jeff Flake. Click here to see Representative Flake's web page, where he spotlights the Egregious Earmark of the week. Unfortunately, his efforts have not only fell on a lot of deaf ears in Washington, he has been reprimanded by his peers and removed from one of the subcommittees he served in on Washington, D.C.

If you have ever wondered who pays for all of those political conventions Republicans and Democrats have every four years, there is an article referenced in the blog from The New York Times from June 7th 2008. It is called "Candidates Forgo Soft Money, But Conventions Rake It In".

This is definitely a story to read, as your tax money goes into these conventions.

We've all heard the story of the "little engine that could" haven't we? The story of a train's engine saying "I think I can, I think I can" as it makes it's way slowly up a steep hill? What do you think would have happened in that story if the little engine had been told, or at least led to believe, that it couldn't? What do you think would have happened in that story if the little engine had been previously taught that engines don't go up hills like that?

This is the plague and the consequences of lowered expectations. We deal with this a lot in the public school system, of students who walk in our doors who have been told or taught by someone that they can't amount to anything because they were born poor, they have a family member (or parent) who is incarcerated, born with a disability, or simply because of their gender. Yes, this happened when my grandmother was a young girl and it still happens today.

My maternal grandmother was born in 1911. Back in the 1920's, when she grew up, it was customary for women to be secretaries, nurses, teachers, and sometimes bookkeepers (but never a CPA), or their only other alternative in life was to get married and have babies. Once a woman got married, it was expected of them to leave their jobs and stay home to raise the children that would come along. It was taboo for a woman to work after she was married, and pregnant women were not allowed in the workplace.

When my mother had us kids in the 1960's, women were allowed to work once married, but not allowed to work pregnant. A lot of times women, including my mother, waited until they actually started to show a baby bump before telling the boss of the impending arrival. This gave the mother-to-be a little extra earning money before leaving to take care of the baby.

As a result of this, the expectations of women were lower, and so were the results. I'm not against getting married and having children, I consider motherhood to be the noblest calling on earth. I even had the joy of marital bliss myself when I married Decker. However there are some women who will never marry during their lifetimes, does that mean they should choose a vocation they don't want, simply because it is expected of them?

Once my maternal grandmother had her 4 children, my grandfather left her. This was during the Great Depression in the 1930's, and because my grandmother was in a poor neighborhood in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as because of the gender discrimination in the workplace, she and her children lived off of the welfare system, rather than her being able to work. My mother, the oldest of the 4 children, remembers fainting from hunger walking home from school.

My parents, both from poor families, decided they were not raising their children this way and did everything they could to make sure we were both educated and inspired to become what we wanted to become.

I guess this is why I got a degree in business management. This is what interested me, this is where I saw myself as working. In some respects, even though I work in primary education, my talents in business have paid off as a Computer Lab Assistant. I did, however, refuse to accept ideas I saw around me while I grew up that you only go to college to get some sort of an education until you get your MRS. degree. I worked jobs in fast food, retail and banking to pay my own way through college because I didn't want my future to be dependent upon someone else's money. It took longer, but it was much more worth it. Not only did I have a degree, but I was also able to take additional classes on the side that I wouldn't have been allowed to under a scholarship plan. I also graduated with no student loans, and a resume filled with valuable work experience.

One of the best educational experiences I actually got was while working in banking. I worked in consumer loans and saw the mistakes made by people who didn't know how to manage money, but I also saw a few good examples of people investing in real estate, who did know how to handle money. Then I moved banks and moved to the commercial loan department that handles multi-million dollar and billion dollar accounts. I saw how people who have money used it to their benefit - something most people never get to see. As a result my home and car are both paid for, I only have a few credit cards with only one with a small balance to be paid off at the end of the summer, and a nice little nest egg of retirement money set aside from the many years I worked to support myself. I live frugally and don't go out very much, so I don't need a lot of money to live on. I can truly consider myself blessed.

I can also consider myself to be truly blessed, because of my college degree, and my work experiences, helped prepare me to take care of myself after my husband died unexpectedly.

I know of others, however, who were raised with lowered expectations. One of them, a dear friend of mine, has the capacity and curiosity to be an engineer. When I asked this friend why she (yes, this is a woman) didn't get an engineering degree, her response was that she wanted to, she wanted to work for Motorola as a secretary, but things didn't work out that way. I could have slapped her for telling me this, instead I just kept my mouth shut. This dear friend is very capable in the job she now has, but was raised with this attitude of "a degree, and possibly a job afterwards, are something you get while you are waiting to meet Mr. Right and get married."

Marriage didn't happen for my dear friend and the result of the lowered expectation she had for herself is that she is still in this vocation that doesn't pay nearly as well as an engineering job would have, and she and the rest of her family are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. The biggest consequence though, to me, is that she didn't fulfill her own dreams of becoming an engineer, designing computer systems.

Her story is not the only one, nor will it be the last one until society begins to have higher expectations for our children, and backs it up with their emotional support, as well as tutoring or some other type of support.

Instead of giving a child a fish, let's not only teach them to fish, but, like the little engine, also teach them, "I think I can, I think I can...I know I can, I know I can!"

Sunday, June 15, 2008

I have to give a little bit of back-story to this post. I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. When I was born, my family lived in a rural area outside of Cincinnati called Batavia, Ohio.

As with most rural areas of our country, the first responders (police, fire department and life squad - now called ambulance) were all volunteer. In some areas they still are today. These are people who hold regular jobs, but during their time off they are on call and/or stationed at their respective buildings in order to quickly respond to an emergency. My father served, for a period of some years, as a volunteer at one time or another for all three in Batavia.

All photos are Copyright Cassandra Dawn Bushman

His Police Badge:

His Fire Fighter Badge:

Dad's Life Squad certification:

This parable is about the true nature of service. We have so many people who serve, but even more who only claim to serve but don't really walk the walk. The term "public servant" comes to mind with some of our elected officials. I was raised with an atmosphere of service in the home I grew up in. This started with my parents.

Let's think of the amount of hours my father spent getting trained for each of the 3 volunteer positions he held in Batavia. Did it take him away from his family? Yes. Was it time consuming? Yes. Was it worth it to the people he rescued? Absolutely yes.

Let's think about the calls he got to rescue someone or help someone in distress. Did these come at inconvenient times for my family? Yes. Was it worth it to the people he helped? Absolutely yes.

Some of these emergencies were flooded river banks, fires, medical emergencies in the home, bad vehicle accidents as well as robberies and disputes. How much do you think people valued Dad's willingness to drop everything and come to a rescue? The word priceless comes to mind, but Mastercard might have issues with that.

Dad always had to be prepared for any emergency, even if we were out for a family car ride here in Arizona and Dad was no longer the "official" first responder he had been in the past. I witnessed many times both of my parents administering emergency aid to someone at a rest stop, including one man who had been severely burned from his car's radiator cap exploding on him.

This was in the days before cell phones, when making a simple phone call was not an option.

Now let's think about what we call "service" today. Yes, there are some fantastic examples of service, including the first responders we have today (paid and unpaid), those in the military and their families, and anyone working in a public school. This includes not only the teachers, but also the staff who are the unsung heroes in public education.

There are also, I'm sorry to say, those whose "service" leaves something to be desired.

Those who abuse the word not only set a bad example, but they will, I believe, ultimately be exposed to the rest of the world for what they really are.

Ultimately, the questions we should be asking are: a) What kind of service do we give (this includes me as well ;o); and b) What kind of people should we be really looking up to? Celebrities, sports stars, politicians, or to those who provide the service most people never see?

I can be grateful that although my Dad was not perfect (he passed away on Dec. 13, 2006), he and Mom did set examples for me to rely on, even today.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Thursday, June 12th, was my tenth wedding anniversary with my beloved Decker. There are two anniversaries I can pretty much count on being a basket case on, one is my wedding anniversary, the other is the anniversary of Decker's death (August 14th). The really sad part is, I've been too busy taking care of Mom to be a basket case this week over our anniversary. I know Decker is busy on the other side, doing the things God called him to his heavenly home for, so hopefully he isn't upset with my lacking in feelings for it.

It's been a crazy ten years, though. We were only married for two years when he died unexpectedly. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I believe that marriages are eternal. I know that mine is, so long as I live worthy of it. In the Temples of my church we are married for time and eternity. Mine has moved from the time portion, but a lot of the time I feel I'm still waiting for the eternity portion to kick in, simply because I don't have him physically with me yet. I know he watches over me, and there are some days I know that can be a full time job.

I don't know that I'll ever find love again during my lifetime, but I can promise you that Decker was definitely worth waiting for.

Friday, June 6, 2008

If you saw my previous post, then you saw that Mom had to go into the hospital. The good news is she is now out of the hospital. The bad news is this means any kind of plans I had for the rest of my summer are pretty much shot.

The first time mom passed out and fell she broke her right foot. She now has a boot on it, and is using the walker Dad used until his death. This means I will need to be with her on a daily basis to help out, as well as driving her around for appointments. The boot will be on for 3 months, so until the first part of September Mom will be living like this. Not much fun for either one of us.

The really good news, though, is that she is home where she can be comfortable, and it seems like what caused it was her electrolytes were skewed out of balance. Namely her magnesium and potassium. If you have too much of both it will cause problems, but if you have too little of either one it will cause an irregular heart beat. This was what got Mom so sick and passing out on Tuesday. The hospital was really great, wanting to make sure they had checked every nook and cranny on her to try to determine what the cause of all of this was. She can now honestly say she's had her head examined. :o)

In the meantime, people needing to reach me can leave an email, a phone message at my home, call my cell number or call directly to Mom's house, as I will be there a majority of my time now.

Prayers are still welcome and appreciated, including a huge prayer of thanks to God on my part that this was not something more serious.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

There are two ticking time bombs in Washington D.C. They are called the Democratic and Republican parties and they will either blow themselves up or impale themselves on their own swords.

With the events surrounding the presidential elections the last few days, a lot of light has been shed to the U.S. as to how corrupt our nation's capitol has become. The "secret combinations", as they would be called in the Book of Mormon, have been brought out of the light. What is also interesting is to see how people have responded. We are truly becoming a country (and even a world) of "ites".

There are some who say they are loyal to Hillary Clinton but now back Barack Obama "for the good of the party". There are others who say they are "Americans first" and continue to back Hillary Clinton. There is one thing Hillary probably knows better than Barack, however, and that is when all is said and done with the election and if Barack is elected President of the U.S., he will have to hold his allegiance to the Democratic party who got him there.

These are people with big pockets and an agenda that has nothing to do with the needs of the U.S. For all of Barack's speech making, these people will simply tell him to "shut up". If you don't believe me, then why did Hillary Clinton, as First Lady during Bill Clinton's presidency, suddenly "shut up" with regards to her work on health care? It's because she and the President were told to "shut up" by those who got them into the White House. Don't believe me? How do you think they were able to purchase a nice, multi-million dollar home in New York and "gave" her a Senate seat after her work as First Lady? Do you think they could afford the home on the $200,000 per year a sitting President of the U.S. makes?

And now Hillary wants to become President, so look how the Democratic party has treated her, by choosing their new little "darling" family to be the ones in the White House (if Barack Obama wins). When Bill was President, and even after his Presidency, the Clintons were the "darling" family of the Democratic party. Now that they aren't, even Bill has spoken publicly about how the party and the media have come out against them, despite the fact that Hillary actually won the majority of the votes in the Primaries.

Then there is John McCain who doesn't seem to know which side of the fence he's on when it comes to being either a maverick who thinks for himself, or a Republican party politician who does what he's told. He's another one who will have to hold his allegiance to his backers in the Republican party if he is elected President.

The Clintons, as well as many Americans, are now finding out what the independent candidates have known all along: the system now in place for electing the President of the United States is a fraud. It has been so altered since the days of our founding fathers of this country even they would be leading a revolt against it. Do you think I'm wrong here? Let's take a look:

One of the reasons for the American Revolution to become the United States of America was the concept of taxation without representation. The American colonies were subject to British taxes, but King George III could care less about the needs of the colonists. This was one of the compelling reasons the founding fathers of our country used to unite the colonists enough to kick out the British. Now here's the question of the day: do you think we are truly represented in Washington D.C. when the agendas (and votes) of those with the power in the U.S. conflict with the needs of the majority of U.S. citizens?

- We have spiraling health care costs- We have low wages- We have an educational system that is deficient and broken- We have environmental issues affecting the lives of citizens- We have corporations whose executives are stealing the money of investors and employees (with little recourse by the law)- We have municipalities taking the homes and properties by eminent domain for commercial development (allowed by U.S. Supreme Court)- We have corporations who are getting financial incentives (tax breaks) to layoff workers here and send the jobs to other countries- Those who are paid to represent companies and organizations (lobbyists) are double-dipping by working or volunteering as staff for members of Congress (both House and Senate)

With this type of an atmosphere, who is really being represented in Washington, the people or those with the most money? If you think it is the latter, then we have an atmosphere of taxation without representation.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

While I was typing the mammogram post, I got the strangest call. It was the plumber at my Mother's house, apparently she was vomiting and passing out on him, and I needed to get over there right away. Thankfully I had not yet left for the grocery shopping I was planning on doing, so I was able to save what I had typed, closed out and put my computer in sleep mode.

Thankfully I fed Rachel before I left, I left about 11:30 am, I got home at 9:30pm this evening. As of this writing I still have not eaten dinner, but Rachel has been fed and is very happily camped out on her latest perch, which is on top of the CPU of my PC.

Mom is going to be okay, but she is still at the hospital overnight, we'll find out if they've figured out what happened tomorrow. After all of the trips to the hospital we made with my Father, now it's Mom's turn.

This morning I went and had my mammograms done. I'm 41 years old, typically at my age you start to get them every other year, but because of lumps found 5 years ago, I have to get them every year. As bad as they are, they are nothing compared to waiting until cancer is found and having to go through tests, biopsies, and surgeries.

Back in 2003 I had my first ever mammograms done. Lumps were found in both breasts and the alarms went off with my doctor. Within days I was told I needed to talk to a breast surgeon they referred me to. I did so, and she was wonderful. I had to go through more mammograms, then again for ultra sound testing. This eliminated all but two lumps, one in each breast. Needle biopsies were done on each one. This eliminated one of the lumps, but the other, I was told, would need to be surgically removed.

I learned this morning that a lumpectomy is when the lump is malignant, but my attitude is, if you have to go under the knife for this, it's a lumpectomy. Thankfully, mine was benign. With Decker only being deceased for a couple of years at this point in time, it was a bit scary for me, but thankfully I had my parents to see me through the whole thing, including the surgery.

My point here is, it's important to get these things taken care of and anything caught early, the stakes on your life are just too high.

Apparently he has an army of people who contest every signature on the ballots to disqualify his opponents and run unopposed. Even if the signatures were valid, by the time it was worked out in the courts the election would have been over.

By the way, this was a tactic used by the Democratic party in 2004 in an effort to keep Ralph Nader off of the ballot in several states. If you think Obama's the only one who would stoop to this kind of campaigning, think again.